1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to systems for uniquely identifying an entity, such as a person or goods and, in particular, to a system for uniquely identifying an entity, providing access control, or registering persons or goods using wireless media.
2. Description of Related Art
Many systems are available for identifying an entity, such as a person or an object, for security, access and inventory purposes. Due to the increasingly stringent requirements imposed regarding access control in the present day, the demand for access and identification equipment will increase. Such equipment typically includes a reader device, which is normally wall mounted, and a unique identification device, such as a portable card or other similar apparatus.
In operation, an individual, who has been assigned a unique identification number or card, slides his or her card through the reader device. The reader device has a controller mechanism that identifies the card and, based upon the information accessible to the reader device, the reader device or a higher level controller mechanism processes the data and decides whether to open an access point or provide other authorization for completing a task. However, if based upon the information, it is decided that the identification information cannot provide for authorized access or should not be provided authorization, the access point or authorization task is locked or prevented. In other common embodiments, as opposed to sliding an identification card through a reader device, it may merely be presented to the reader device having a sensing mechanism. The sensing mechanism “looks at” a portion of the identification card and, as discussed above, decides whether to provide authorization to the card.
In order to provide additional protection and prevent an unauthorized person from stealing or obtaining an identification card that has someone else's authorization information, a scanning device may be provided. This scanning device is in communication with the controller mechanism of the reader device and requires the user to place his or her finger or thumb on the scanning device, thus allowing this device to read the person's fingerprint. If the fingerprint matches an optical or digitized fingerprint contained on the reader device, and further matches the authorization information present on the identification card, the user is authorized to proceed through the access point or engage in some other authorized activity.
Such a system gives rise to various problems. First, current privacy legislation often curtails the ability to collect such highly unique and private information as a person's fingerprint and store it on a third-party device that is out of the user's control, namely the reader device. By storing such information on the reader device, which is often in communication with other systems and networks, this information is particularly accessible to unauthorized collection and abuse. Such systems can be “hacked” or otherwise broken or decrypted, thus allowing the unauthorized user to gain access to this highly private information. Accordingly, it is not desirable to store such sensitive information at any type of centralized repository that can be broken or stolen in order to gain unauthorized access.
With respect to the configuration of the reader device, configuration or control cards have been developed that are better capable of affecting how the reader device functions. Further, such control cards can be used to program the operation of the reader device. In such a system, the reader device is used to enable contactless or wireless storage and reading of information on a portable medium, such as the identification card. Typically, the portable medium contains a chip, on which the data is stored, and electronics to enable communication with the outside world, such as the reader device. Although such electronics are often placed on a card, it is also possible to mount or place them in different forms or environments. In any case, the reader device has the function of accessing or reading the data on the identification card and then transmitting this data to an external system or placing or writing data onto the card obtained from the external system.
However, as discussed above, the requirements and functionality of the various readers differs from application to application. Even within a specific application, it is often necessary to provide reader devices with different information and functionality. For example, if the card is used in an access control application, it may be necessary that cards of one client may not be read at all by a different client. This can be realized by safeguarding the cards with different cryptographic keys, and only if the reader device has the correct key can it read the card. It may also be the case that a client uses an external system which expects varying protocols.
In order to correct this drawback and work within the system, and as discussed above, reader devices have been designed such that different requirements and functionality of the reader devices can be changed by changing certain parameters. Therefore, the operation of the reader device changes when the parameters are changed, and these parameters are stored in the memory of the reader device itself, such that this adjustment only need take place once. While formerly such parameters were required to be loaded into the reader device by a direct electric connection, these adjustable readers use the above-mentioned control card, which has the parameters influencing the operation of the reader device located on the card itself. By making use of the control card, it is possible to reduce, among other costs, logistical costs by supplying only standard reader devices, providing clients themselves with control cards with which they can program the readers and thus simplifying inventory control, since a reader device supports many different applications, and minimizing the service costs, in that service technicians need only have one reader device type which can be easily re-programmed.
While such wirelessly programmable reader devices and card systems are available, such systems do not provide for the added security provided when using a scanning device that scans or reads a biometric characteristic of a human, such as a fingerprint. In addition, and as discussed above, there are serious drawbacks to storing such sensitive and private information on a reader device that is hardwired to some other control device, which is susceptible to break-ins or other unauthorized access to this data.